Stunning social drama for its time. In Reclam’s Lexikon des deutschen Films (1995) , Thomas Kramer praised the film’s “subtle-realistic, unembellished, but extremely sober depiction of everyday life and milieu,” which exposed “the social contradictions between state ideology and social reality.” He stated that the two leading actors delivered the best dramatic performances of their careers in their “extremely sensitive portrayal of the spouses.” I agree with his opinion.

As a person who was born and raised in the USSR, it was extremely amusing to observe a German version of the communal apartment. It was a paradise when compared to the Soviet ones, especially if some of your neighbors were drunkards or brawlers, which was very common.

As to the controversy. I side with Joseph Goebbels and his opinion that the movie “contradicts the demographic principles of National Socialism and, in some cases, is directly opposed to them”. However, I am puzzled why a sequence in a new Berlin housing development where Hannes and Nora would like to rent a single-family home was removed. Supposedly, this reason was an allusion to the marriage loan introduced by the National Socialist government; Hannes utters the line: “Marriage loan – do you really think I want to start our marriage with debts and repayments right from the start!?”. To me it just showed that Hannes was a fool. It was an interest free loan. For each live child born, 25 percent of the loan amount was forgiven. Where else in the “free” world can one even get it today? Goebbels should have amplified this point by adding an episode where someone explained to Hannes how misguided he was. That would demonstrate how National Socialist cared for young families with limited means. It would also bring the missing feeling to this movie- optimism.